THE ORIGIN OF LANGUAGE 61 



written language must probably have vastly exceeded 

 the period that has passed since that time. 



Primitive Language and Child Language It is sug- 

 gestive to notice that there is a close parallel between 

 primitive language as outlined above and the lan- 

 guage of the developing child. The child with his 

 dawning intelligence may be compared with prim- 

 itive man beginning to use his mind, and the method 

 of acquiring language is much the same. At first 

 the child has no way of expressing his feelings except 

 by his emotional cries ; but these are quite sufficient 

 to express his feelings of pleasure or dissatisfaction, 

 and even of entreaty or command. Presently, from, 

 hearing words used around him, he begins to imitate 

 the sounds he hears and soon attaches them to his 

 wants. Then we find always a stage when he uses 

 sentence words in the same indefinite way that we 

 have already noticed. He has learned to associate 

 the word "up" with his being taken up by his par- 

 ents ; and now by using this one word, perhaps ac- 

 companied by the holding up of his arms, he conveys 

 an entreaty or a command, the one word ''up" 

 serving as a whole sentence. The sentence word is 

 all that he needs to express his desire. But presently 

 his ears and his mind catch new words, and he begins 

 to put them together. He now says "Papa up," or 

 "Baby up," meaning by it just the same that he did 

 by the single word "up." Presently it is "Papa 

 baby up," a little further differentiation of the sen- 

 tence, but with no added meaning; the word "up" 

 still serves as verb and adverb. After a while he 

 begins to use the words "you" and "I." We must 

 not place too much emphasis upon this fact, however, 

 since the reason why the child does not early learn 



